According to a recent YouGov survey, it was found that 39% of adults would strongly support the banning of social media for children under the age of 16. Specsavers have recently reported that children in the UK aged between 5 and 16 spend a total of 6.3 hours a day on screens.
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00:00According to a recent UGO survey, it was found that 39% of adults would strongly support
00:08the banning of social media for children under the age of 16.
00:12Specsavers have recently reported that children in the UK aged between 5 and 16 spend a total
00:18of 6.3 hours a day on screens.
00:21To help reduce your child's screen time, parents have been advised to apply things
00:26like setting limits and developing screen time rules.
00:31Parental controls can also help to block or filter the type of content that your child
00:35has access to.
00:36Organisations like Common Sense Media can help you to preview programmes, games and
00:42even apps before allowing your children to view or play with them.
00:48We know that the online world is a really important part of many children's lives.
00:52They enjoy exploring new communities on there, connecting with their friends and learning
00:56about the world.
00:57So we want to make sure they can access the benefits of it, but it is important to think
01:02as well about what some of the risks or challenges might be with spending too long online.
01:07Now we don't say that there's a particular right or wrong amount of time to spend online.
01:12This really will depend on the child, on their needs and their support systems, but what
01:16is important is that parents are working with children to think about what a healthy balance
01:20might look like for them and then setting some sensible boundaries in place.
01:24There are a number of things at the NSPTC that we're worried about when we think about
01:28children's safety online.
01:29We hear from Calls to Childline that children are being groomed at scale online with perpetrators
01:35often creating fake profiles to build relationships and contacts with children online and then
01:40using this to groom and exploit children.
01:44We also know that children are exposed to age-inappropriate material, violent content
01:48or sources of material that will impact their mental health.
01:51Tech companies absolutely need to be taking much greater responsibility for the harms
01:55that we know children are facing online.
01:58For too long, organisations like the NSPTC have been calling for greater action and for
02:04tech companies to step up, but we haven't seen enough movement yet.
02:07So parents can visit the NSPTC's online safety hub.
02:11Now this has a wide range of resources that parents can look at, anything from starting
02:15those conversations that can be tricky about how do you approach difficult subjects with
02:20your children.
02:21The anonymity of the online world can expose children to a range of risks from cyberbullying
02:27and online grooming.